Tabulator safety apparatus

ABSTRACT

A tabulator safety apparatus for use with typewriters, calculating machines, accounting machines or the like having a movable motor operated carriage, to prevent the movable carriage from being halted when the tabulator set key is depressed during carriage travel or when the tabulator key is depressed during the return travel of the carriage including a holder having at least one tabulation stop member disposed therein or coacting with a tabulator stop in stopping position, said holder being movable against a spring in a carriage return direction, said stop member being movable between an position and a nonoperative position, a link mechanism cooperating with said holder and transferring said holder movement to said stop member whereby said holder movement in said carriage return direction moves said stop member to said nonoperative position, and a swinging arc having a setting stud for said tabulator stops for engaging said tabulator stops, said stud being laterally moveable against the action of at least one return spring and cooperating with recesses and guide pins to transform the lateral movement of said tabulator stop into a movement disengaging said stud from said tabulator stop.

I v United States Patent m13,586,150

[72] Inventor Ivar Holtltlint 2,393,441 [/1946 Yaeger 197/66 Karlshamn, Sweden 2,580,318 12/1951 Pitman 197/178 [21] Appl. No. 772,349 3,204,747 9/1965 Hoysak l97/l79 [22] Filed Oct. 3], 1968 3,268,051 8/1966 Krauss et al. 197/65 [45] Patented June 22, 1971 2,813,611 12/1957 Frieberg et a1 197/176 X [73] Asslgnee gr Primary ExaminerEmest T, Wright, Jr.

angsta, Sweden 32 Priority Nov. 2, 1967 Ball [33] Sweden [31 1 15037/67 [54] TABULATOR SAFETY APPARATUS 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 197/179, 197/70, 197/176 [51] Int. Cl. B4lj 21/04 [50] Field ofSearch 197/64, 65,

ABSTRACT: A tabulator safety apparatus for use with typewriters, calculating machines, accounting machines or the like having a movable motor operated carriage, to prevent the movable carriage from being halted when the tabulator set key is depressed during carriage travel or when the tabulator key is depressed during the return travel of the carriage including a holder having at least one tabulation stop member disposed therein or coacting with a tabulator stop in stopping position, said holder being movable against a spring in a carriage return direction, said stop member being movable between an position and a nonoperative position, a link mechanism cooperating with said holder and transferring said holder movement to said stop member whereby said holder movement in said carriage return direction moves said stop member to said nonoperative position, and a swinging are having a setting stud for said tabulator stops for engaging said tabulator stops, said stud being laterally moveable against the action of at least one return spring and cooperating with recesses and guide pins to transform the lateral movement of said tabulator stop into a movement disengaging said stud from said tabulator stop.

TABULATOR SAFETY APPARATUS This invention relates to an arrangement adapted on tabulators for typewriters, calculating machines, accounting machines or the like comprising a movable motor-operated carriage, to prevent the movable carriage from being stopped when the setting key of the tabulator is depressed during the travel of the carriage or when a tabulator key is depressed during the return travel of the carriage.

In machines of the aforementioned type it has been found that the tabulator means can become unfit for use when the setting key for the tabulator is depressed while the carriage is performing a return or tabulating travel, due to the fact, that a stud, which is adapted upon depression of the setting key (carriage not in motion) to move a stop member in a row of such stop members for the tabulator to stop position, thereby so engages between adjacent stop members, that the carriage travel is stopped. As a result thereof, the stop member or the setting stud is deformed and, respectively, in connection with the return travel of the carriage the coupling for this travel slips and thereby is subjected to rapid wear.

For preventing this, the key for the carriage return travel or the tabulator keys can be arranged so as to be locked in depressed position until the operation in question has been completed. The key actuates in this position a system of clappers or balls which prevents more than one key from being depressed at a time. Such an arrangement, however, is relatively large and expensive and, therefore, it is applied substantially only when absolutely necessary. This solution, moreover, renders it impossible to interrupt the return travel of the carriage by depressing a tabulator key, by which method time can be saved when it is not intended to start typing at the beginning of a line, but for example at its center, in which case one interrupts the carriage return travel in said manner immediately after the carriage has moved past the tabulator stop position where the typing is intended to start.

When interrupting the carriage return travel, however, it can occur that this interruption takes place when a stop member on the stationary part of the machine is directly in front of the tabulator stop on the carriage or immediately before said position. In both cases one or the other of the stop members can be damaged. In the first case the possibility of damage can be prevented by causing a spring to move the stop member to the stop position. In the latter case it is more complicated to prevent damage, because the tabulator stop and the stop member normally are intended to stop the carriage at tabulation. If this stop function, instead, is carried out during a return travel of the carriage, which travel although it is going to be interrupted has not yet come to an end and the carriage still is moving in a direction opposite to that at tabulation, the coupling for the carriage return travel or the stop means can be damaged, because the two corresponding functions thereby will counteract one another.

The aforesaid shortcomings are overcome by the arrangement according to the invention, which is characterized in that it comprises a holder adapted against the action of a spring to move in the carriage return direction, in which holder is provided a stop member for tabulator stops in stop position, which stop member is movable in the direction to and from nonoperative position, and a link mechanism or the like which transfers the holder movement to the stop member, in such a manner, that the holder movement in the return travel direction of the carriage effects movement of the stop member to nonoperative position, and that, furthermore, the setting key of the tabulator actuates a swinging arm, which is provided with a setting stud for the tabulator stops, which stud is laterally movable against the action of at least one return spring and at which stud the lateral movement by means of cooperating recesses and guide pins or the like is transformed into a movement disengaging the stud from the tabulator stop.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described below in greater detail by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing.

FIG. I shows in a perspective way the tabulator means.

FIG. 2 shows in a perspective way the setting means.

FIG. 3 shows in a front view the setting lever.

FIG. 4 shows in a perspective way the stop arrangement with its parts in disassembled state.

Upon depressing the setting key 21 of the tabulator, a swinging arm 2 movably mounted on a shaft 3 is so actuated via a link 1, see FIG. 2, that the arm 2 swings in clockwise direction. On the swinging arm 2 a setting stud 4 is mounted on two guide pins 5 and 6 through a groove 4 a cooperating with the guide pin 6 and through a heart-shaped hole 4b cooperating with the guide pin 5. The guide pin 6 further is formed as a spring mounting, and a tension spring 7 between the pin 6 and a bent portion 4c on the setting stud 4 keeps the latter in an upper position. Upon the movement of the swinging arm 2 in clockwise direction the setting stud 4 is taken along whereby a bent portion 4d on the latter strikes against the tabulator stop 8 mounted on a tabulator bar 9. The tabulator stop 8 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 10 and retained in one or the other of two definite positions by a spring means 11 comprising a comblike slotted plate of thin spring steel where every comb tooth 11a presses against a tabulator stop 8. Said tabulator stop 8 is provided with two recesses 8a and 8b through which the comb tooth 11a fixes both positions of the tabulator stop 8, in such a manner, that the recess 8a corresponds to the nonoperative position of the tabulator stop 8, and recess 8b corresponds to the stop position, i.e. the stop 8 can stop the carriage against a stop member 12 in the stationary part of the machine (FIG. 4).

By depressing the setting key 21, thus, atabulator stop 8 is moved from its nonoperative position to its stop position. During this operation the bent portion 4d of the setting stud 4 is caused to engage between the two tabulator stops on either side of the actuated tabulator stop 8. If the carriage is traveling, or if the carriage is caused to travel, for example in connection with carriage return or tabulation, the setting stud 4 will stop the carriage whereby the coupling for the carriage return travel can be destroyed and whereby it may also happen, that the setting stud 4 or the tabulator stop struck by the setting stud 4 are deformed. For preventing damage, the setting stud 4 is suspended and so formed that it can move aside and get out of the engagement with the tabulator stops remaining in the nonoperative position. This is effected in that the setting stud 4 is mounted on its heart-shaped hole 4b, so that upon a lateral actuation of the bent setting stud portion 4d the setting stud 4 is pressed down against the guide pin 5. When said lateral actuation ceases, the setting stud 4 reassumes its original position by action of spring 7.

When the carriage return travel is interrupted by depressing a tabulator key, the situation may occur that the carriage return travel is interrupted immediately before the tabulator stop 8 (FIG. 4) being in stop position on the movable carriage is to move past the set stop member 12 on the stationary part of the machine. In that case the carriage cannot stop immediately and change the direction of motion, but the tabulator stop 8 and the stop member 12 will meet on the wrong side. For preventing in this case damage and deformations, a holder 13 for the upper end of the stop member 12 through two guide slots 13a and 13b, which cooperate with shoulder screws 14 and 15 rigidly mounted in the machine, is adapted to be moved to the right in FIG. 4 when the tabulator stop 8 strikes against the stop member 12, whereby a projection on the holder 13 actuates a lever 16 pivotally mounted on a slotted pin 17, said lever 16 being kept pressed against the projection 130 by a spring 18. Thereby the lever 16 swings in clockwise direction and actuates via a link 19 a bridge 20 mounted on the shaft 21 to swing in anticlockwise direction, whereby the bridge 20 pulls the stop member 12 downwards by actuation of the projection 12a on the stop member 12. The stop member 12 thereby disengages with the tabulator stop 8, whereby the lateral pressure against the stop member 12 ceases and the stop member 12 is moved to the left in FIG. 4 by the spring 18 below the tabulator stop 8. When thereafter the stop member 12 returns to its left-hand starting position, the member 12 is simultaneously lifted to stop position by a spring 22.

For enabling the spring 18 via the lever 16 to return the holder 13 to its starting position without returning the bridge 20, the link 19 is threaded into a hole on a bent portion 160 of the lever 16 in such a way, that upon a swinging motion of the lever [6 in clockwise direction the bridge 20 is actuated directly, but that upon a swinging motion of the lever 16 in counterclockwise direction the link 19 slides in the hole on the bent portion 16a so that the bridge 20 is not actuated thereby.

What I claim is:

1. In a tabulator apparatus for use with typewriters and the like having a movable motor operable carriage for preventing the movable carriage from being stopped when a tabulator setting key is depressed during carriage travel or by activation of a tabulator key during carriage return travel, the improvement comprising a holder biased against a spring to move in carriage return direction, said holder having at least one tabulation stop member disposed therein for engagement with a tabulator stop instopped position, said stop member being movable between an operative position and a nonoperative position, a link mechanism cooperating with said holder and transferring said holder movement to said stop member whereby said holder movement in said carriage return direction moves said stop member to said nonoperative position, said setting key of said tabulator actuating a swinging arm having a setting stud for said tabulator stops, said stud having a heart-shaped aperture disposed therein and being laterally movable against the action of at least one return spring and cooperating with recesses and guide pins for transforming said lateral movement of said tabulator stop into a movement disengaging said stud from said tabulator stop. 

1. In a tabulator apparatus for use with typewriters and the like having a movable motor operable carriage for preventing the movable carriage from being stopped when a tabulator setting key is depressed during carriage travel or by activation of a tabulator key during carriage return travel, the improvement comprising a holder biased against a spring to move in carriage return direction, said holder having at least one tabulation stop member disposed therein for engagement with a tabulator stop in stopped position, said stop member being movable between an operative position and a nonoperative position, a link mechanism cooperating with said holder and transferring said holder movemeNt to said stop member whereby said holder movement in said carriage return direction moves said stop member to said nonoperative position, said setting key of said tabulator actuating a swinging arm having a setting stud for said tabulator stops, said stud having a heart-shaped aperture disposed therein and being laterally movable against the action of at least one return spring and cooperating with recesses and guide pins for transforming said lateral movement of said tabulator stop into a movement disengaging said stud from said tabulator stop. 